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SOUTH CAROLINA
SOUTHERN SCHOOL NEWS—FEBRUARY, 1963—PAGE 9
Harvey Gantt Enrolls at Clemson Without Incident
(Continued from Page 8)
fective education.” The University of
South Carolina released a statement in
support of the Clemson faculty mem
bers.
Also calling for an orderly admission
were four major business and industrial
associations, which said in a joint state
ment that this was essential to pre
serve “the good name of South
Carolina.”
'Forced Accommodation’
Unanimously the state’s newspapers
editorially urged good order during
what the Charleston News and Courier
called a “forced accommodation.” At
the same time, the Greenville News
said: “We still insist the states have
the lawful right to run their public
schools as they see fit.”
Almost every Clemson student inter
viewed by one paper on the day of the
court order agreed there would be no
trouble.
Student leader Bill Schachte of
Charleston said: “The inevitable has
finally reached South Carolina. I am
glad that Clemson has been called upon
to shoulder the responsibility of
changing times. Most of us despise the
portrait of Uncle Sam standing before
the world with Mississippi mud in his
face.”
Dan Gentry, operator of a downtown
student gathering place at Clemson,
said, “If Gantt is a Clemson student,
then I’ll feed him. He’ll be treated just
like any other.”
Thurmond’s Comments
called the Fourth Circuit Court’s re
versal of District Judge C. C. Wyche’s
original decision against Gantt an act
of 7 ‘glaring stupidity” and charged that
the Fourth Circuit had “substituted fic
tion for fact and expedience for law.”
A week later, Thurmond walked off
during a television interview at the air
port in Charlotte, N.C., when a news
man persisted in asking him whether
Clemson should peacefully desegregate.
But it was Rep. Bethea who launched
the strongest verbal opposition to
Clemson’s compliance. Bethea took to
the floor of the House of Represent
atives on Jan. 17 to condemn what he
termed the attitude of “defeatism” and
to urge his fellow legislators: “Don’t
give up.”
He said he would “fight just as hard
to get Harvey Gantt out of Clemson
College as others have to get him in.”
His remarks followed his introduction
of a resolution condemning the Presi
dent and the attorney general for
sending federal troops to Mississippi.
The resolution was quickly sent to a
committee.
Executive Session
After Bethea’s speech, the House
went into a rare executive session to
hear a report on the Clemson situation
from Rep. Joseph O. Rogers of Claren
don, vice-chairman of the Gressette
Committee. The legislators were told
that even if Gantt was admitted, the
state’s policy in favor of segregated
schools would continue unchanged.
The next week, Bethea, lamenting
what he called the state’s “lost pres-
New Leaf
Graham, Arkansas Gazette
tige,” charged that Clemson President
Robert C. Edwards and Dean of Stu
dents Walter Cox were guilty of “brain
washing those Clemson boys into a sort
of passive acceptance of Gantt.”
He promised that “the top will blow
off” the legislature if “that boy (Gantt)
gets the red carpet treatment” when
admitted.
He expressed irritation over reports
that Clemson students who demonstrat
ed against Gantt’s admission would be
expelled. He insisted repeatedly that
they had the right to demonstrate
peacefully.
Two days after Gantt was enrolled,
Bethea, a Clemson graduate, encoun
tered President Edwards on the steps
of the State House. The fiery legislator
grabbed his sleeve and said:
“I don’t like what you people did at
Clemson this week. I don’t like the way
you admitted him at all.”
Edwards tossed off the remark but
Bethea told him he should have made
it clear that Gantt was not welcome at
Clemson. The president said that he
thought he had done that.
“Yes,” retorted Bethea, “but you
didn’t say that to all those Northern
newspapermen and you didn’t say that
to Gantt.”
■Red Carpet’
Bethea charged that Edwards had
given Gantt the “red carpet treat
ment.” Edwards denied it.
Edwards moved away from Bethea,
who turned to a nearby newsman and
said, “Tomorrow I’m going to introduce
a resolution that will burn Bob Ed
wards up.”
He also said he had wired the gover
nors of Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas,
Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina,
Georgia and Virginia apologizing for
“the meek stand” taken by South Caro
lina.
He said he had received a return
call from Gov. Ross Barnett of Missis
sippi and another governor he refused
to identify and that he had accepted
an invitation to address the legislature
of Mississippi.
For several days, Bethea carried a
bill that would close Clemson’s School
of Architecture, to which Gantt was
admitted. He never introduced it or the
threatened resolution censuring Presi
dent Edwards.
Resolution Introduced
One resolution of the case that was
introduced came from Rep. J. C. Ar-
rants of Kershaw County. It asked the
news media to “refrain from taking pic
tures, newsreels, and interviewing stu
dents, and writing stories of this event
except with the permission of the
president of Clemson. . .
Added Arrants: “I for one do not
intend to sit idly by and see our state
slandered.” He threatened new laws if
newsmen did not act with discretion.
The resolution passed the House but
was sent to the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee, headed by Sen. Gressette, and
did not emerge.
★ ★ ★
First Public School Move
Planned for Charleston
Negro lawyer Matthew Perry of Co
lumbia, an NAACP attorney, said
Charleston has been selected for the
first public school desegregation attempt
in South Carolina.
Speaking on Feb. 1, Perry said his
clients hope that a pending case in
Charleston (Brown v. School District
20) will be tried on its merits before
two other suits presently on the docket
of the U.S. District Court for the East
ern District of S.C.
Sen. Thurmond’s comments on the
Gantt matter were somewhat more
critical of the judiciary than the ma
jority of those heard in the state. He
‘Just Stick to My Prescription
and You’ll Be Fine’
Payne, Charlotte Observer
Community Action
Law Enforcement,
^ews Provisions
Lt Clemson Noted
Two of the most interested observers
the proceedings surrounding the en-
p. ance of Negro Harvey B. Gantt into
etnson College were:
* Chief of Police L. B. Campbell of
olumbia, home of the University of
° ut h Carolina, and
] * '-’avid Abeel, director of public re-
a i? ns at the university.
j t “ e university has pending against
a suit by a Negro girl, Henri Mon-
teith, now a stu
dent at the Col
lege of Notre
Dame for Women
in Baltimore, Md.
This action, the
first brought by a
Negro to enter
USC, has passed
the preliminary
hearing stage.
Chief Campbell
praised the job
of preparation by
He ® , or cement officers at Clemson.
iilg ln with officers during a brief-
aU(j n , day before Gantt registered
day ° serv ed the routine of the next
montieth
ay.
'adio.'
observed the elaborate press-
'■"Uo-Tv
Ci Fjrn ^ v arrangements made by his
Chief 1 counter Part, Joe Sherman.
_ Campbell and his Columbia
aid r,f e Partment, doubtless with the
v Ui,
0{ the
Mil f an d the State Highway patrol,
Mis s f act ' a more formidable task if
^‘eith enters U.S.C.
l ° isol a t° Urn ^ ia campus is not as easy
saiall ?, as Clemson, situated in a
c °Mer , ® town in the northwest
0 South Carolina.
S.C. Law Enforcement Di-
Legal Action
Rapid Legal
Maneuvers Cleared Way
For Gantt
A series of rapid legal maneuvers
and decisions cleared the way for
Harvey B. Gantt to become the first
Negro to gain admittance to Clemson
College in its 71-year history.
Both the land-grant college in the
Blue Ridge foothills of South Carolina
and the federal courts moved with
dispatch and determination as the Jan.
28 registration date for the second
semester neared.
Thirteen days after counsel for
Gantt and for Clemson appeared be
fore the U. S. Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals in Alexandria, Va., District
Judge C. C. Wyche issued a formal
order, as required by the higher
court, telling the college to admit the
Charleston Negro and “others similarly
situated.” The Circuit Court acted on
Gantt’s appeal from Wyche’s decision
of Dec. 21 throwing out the case.
Gantt, 20, of Charleston, said he
was anxious to resume his education in
the field of architecture. He had
dropped out of Iowa State University,
where he was a junior and considered
a good student, in November.
Early Settlement Wanted
In order that the case could be com
pleted by the registration date, the
Fourth Circuit had ordered, when the
case first went to it on a request for
a temporary injunction, that it be
handled with dispatch.
Clemson authorities also wanted a
quick settlement. They indicated that
they were anxious to exhaust all legal
sources before Jan. 28, in case it be
came necessary to admit Gantt, so
there would be no matters pending
at the time of the court-ordered ad
mittance. There was a belief that the
presence of unresolved legal action
contributed to the outbreak of violence
at the University of Mississippi last
fall.
Preparations for the admission of
Gantt were under way long before
the final word came on Jan. 22, even
though officials of the college and of the
state government remained convinced
of the legal soundness of Clemson’s
case.
The college, in its arguments and
briefs, had consistently maintained
that Gantt had been denied admission
in September not because of his race
but because he had not completed
the admission requirements. It had
contended that South Carolina does
not have a policy demanding segre
gation but one that merely discourages
desegregation. It further insisted the
case could not be considered a class
action because each student is different
and must be considered on his own
merits. In the long series of hearings,
college lawyers went into great detail
to support these contentions.
In his Dec. 21 opinion dismissing
Gantt’s suit, District Judge Wyche
agreed generally with the Clemson
position.
Former U. S. Supreme Court Justice
James F. Byrnes and incoming Gov.
Donald S. Russell, both former law
partners of Wyche, were among those
who had public praise for the opinion.
Russell called it “splendid”; Byrnes said
Wyche’s “righteous decision was based
on the law and the facts as testified to
by witnesses . . .”
However, the argument against class
action in such cases had been dealt a
blow on Dec. 7, when the Fourth
Circuit, ruling on a public school case
from Clarendon County, S. C. (Brunson
et al v. Austin et al), had declared that
desegregation suits could have multiple
plaintiffs.
As S. C. attorneys were leaving for
Alexandria, where the Court of Appeals
is sitting pending renovation of its
permanent quarters at Richmond, State
Sen. Earle E. Morris, Jr., of Pickens
County (which contains part of the
Clemson campus) echoed earlier com
ment from officials to the effect that
there would be no violence attached
to Gantt’s entry into Clemson and that
the college would not be closed.
Before Three Judges
The Gantt appeal from Judge Wyche’s
ruling was argued primarily by Mrs.
Constance Baker Motley, NAACP law
yer from New York, and Matthew
Perry of Columbia. The Jan. 9 hearing
was before Judges Simon Sobeloff and
Morris Soper, both of Maryland, and
Clement Haynsworth of South Carolina.
Arguments resembled those of hear
ings before the same court last Septem
ber that failed to produce a temporary
injunction admitting Gantt to Clemson
pending a trial of his case on its merits.
Gantt’s lawyers insisted he had been
barred solely because of race and with
out due consideration of his rights and
qualifications. Clemson’s legal counsel,
William L. Watkins of Anderson, denied
this.
One relatively new point was ad
vanced by Perry—that Clemson, from
the outset, had handled Gantt’s applica
tion with a view toward future legal
action. Watkins challenged the conten
tion, arguing that the only real issue
was whether Gantt was discriminated
against—not whether his case had been
given the same treatment as all others.
Acted Jan. 16
The Circuit Court took the case under
advisement and seven days later—Jan.
16—issued an opinion that reversed
Judged Wyche and upheld most of the
points brought up in Gantt’s favor,
including the “class action” portion.
Judge Wyche was directed to issue an
order to Clemson requiring the admis
sion.
The court said:
“Other Negroes in the past have
sought admission to Clemson and,
doubtless, there are other qualified
Negroes who will do so. These, as
well as Gantt, are entitled to freedom
from a racially discriminatory policy . . .
“The District Court, in its findings
of fact, declared that the legislative
policy of South Carolina does not
prohibit but discourages integration . . .
“The distinction drawn between pro
hibition and discouragement is a novel
one in legal literature, and we must
hold it unacceptable.
“Under the Constitution of the United
States, a state may no more pursue a
policy of discouraging and impeding
admissions to educational institutions on
the grounds of race than it may main
tain a policy of strictly prohibiting
admissions on aclount of race . . .”
Unanimous Opinion
The Circuit Court, in its unanimous
opinion, held that Clemson had pur
sued a policy of segregation prior to
the 1954 Supreme Court decision on
school desegregation and “has not done
anything to change the pre-existing
policy of exclusion of Negroes . .
As to Gantt, the court ruled that he
had completed admittance require
ments, needing only a conference with
the Dean of Architecture to determine
his class placement.
The decision was learned by new
Gov. Russell in the first hour of his
first full day in office. His comment:
“I am confident Clemson College will
prosecute an appeal to the Supreme
Court. I hope that on such an appeal,
Judge Wyche’s decision will be sus
tained.”
Discussions of a further appeal took
note of the Circuit Court’s admission
that Judge Wyche “was technically
correct in holding that at the time the
action was commenced, Gantt’s appli
cation had not been denied. It was
being considered but had not been
acted on either way.
“Though the officials of Clemson may
have intended to pass upon a fair and
nondiscriminatory basis, it should have
been readily understandable by them
that Gantt, with reason, may not have
thought so.”
President’s Statement
Clemson President Robert C. Edwards
was one of the last to hear of the
Fourth Circuit’s opinion. He had been
in Charleston to
attend a meeting
the night before
and was making
the 250-mile trip
back to Clemson
when the order
was announced.
He did not have
his car radio on.
Upon his return,
he found the cam
pus calm and is
sued this state
ment: “I have not seen the order and,
until I have had an opportunity to
study it and confer with proper officials,
I do not have any comment to make
relating to it.”
Dean of Students Walter Cox, who
had read news dispatches to students
assembled in the school cafeteria for
the noon meal, said, “No emotion was
displayed, one way or the other. I
anticipate a minimum of trouble from
our students should Gantt be ad
mitted . . .”
‘Story’ Sought
Clemson attorney Watkins and S.C.
Attorney General Daniel R. McLeod
immediately made plans for a last-ditch
effort to “stay” the impending court
order. They went to Washington to
ask, first, a stay from Sobeloff, chief
judge of the Fourth Circuit sitting at
nearby Alexandria, and then the Chief
Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme
Court justice assigned to the Fourth
Circuit for such matters.
The lawyers hoped to gain time
pending preparation of a request for a
writ of certiorari so that the Supreme
Court could review the case.
On Jan. 21, Watkins appeared before
Judge Sobeloff and Judge Hansworth,
the latter a resident of Greenville, and
asked for the stay.
“Suppose we deny you the stay,”
Sobeloff told Watkins. “Then that would
open the way to apply to the Supreme
Court. I think what we ought to do is
sign the order and you make an ap
pointment with the Chief Justice.”
Denied by Warren
The order denying the stay was ready
in 20 minutes and
the S.C. attorneys
rushed across the
Potomac. A short
time later Clem
son’s application
for a stay order
was on Chief Jus-
tice Warren’s
desk. An hour
later, a clerk re
turned the re
quest. Across the
upper lefthand
corner was written:
“Denied. EW. 1-21-63”
“Well, that’s it,” remarked Perry, the
lawyer for Gantt who, with Mrs. Mot
ley, had trailed the S.C. lawyers. “The
way is clear now.”
“Yes,” Watkins agreed.
Thus it was at 3:48 on Jan. 21, South
Carolina’s long legal fight to remain the
last of the 50 states to desegregate after
the 1954 Supreme Court decision
ended.
To Ask Review
Added Watkins: “Clemson will, of
course, ask the Supreme Court to re
view the case. “But neither the filing of
the request nor the granting of it would
postpone the effect of this order . .
The only glimpse that the lawyers
had of Justice Warren came when
they were leaving the building. They
spotted him in a barber shop.
The next day, in compliance with the
Fourth Circuit mandate, Judge Wyche
issued the formal order requiring
Clemson to admit Gantt and others
similarly situated.
On Jan. 14, in the midst of it all,
Gantt reached his 20th birthday.
EDWARDS
WARREN